Some White Influencers Are Being Accused of "Blackfishing," or Using Makeup to Appear Black

In this reported op-ed, writer Amira Rasool discusses the recent wave of blackfishing, a phenomenon where white influencers are accused of "cosplaying" blackness, allegedly using makeup and hairstyles to look like they are women of color.

There's a saying that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." But what happens when imitation appears to cross over into cultural appropriation and exploitation? This week, social media found out, after several black women on Twitter publicly accused a number of white female influencers of "blackfishing": some using dark facial makeup, some wearing their hair in cornrows and other traditionally black hairstyles, and others allegedly enhancing their bodies, seemingly to look like black women.

The controversy heated up last week when college sophomore Deja (aka "Dee," on Twitter) tweeted images of a DM she said she'd received on Instagram. She said the message revealed that Emma Hallberg, one of the girls she followed on Instagram and whom she believed was a light-skinned black woman, was, in fact, a white woman from Sweden.

Deja tells Teen Vogue she was stunned when she received an image from one of her followers of Emma looking significantly lighter and paler than she appears on Instagram. "I wasn't really mad, I was just kind of shocked because this girl genuinely looks like a mixed black person," Deja told Teen Vogue over the phone. "It was just kind of annoying because she's gotten so Instagram famous off what black people have. Not even black people get the same amount of attention she's getting."

Deja was apparently not the only one displeased with Emma's allegedly darkened appearance. One Instagram user allegedly reached out to Emma on Instagram to ask if she was indeed white. Emma allegedly responded to the user, claiming she'd never attempted to misrepresent herself and that the picture being circulated of her appearing lighter was a photo from the winter when she hadn't received much sun. She allegedly responded, "of course there's a difference in my skin tone because I get very tanned NATURALLY when I've been in the sun!!" In a screenshot that appears to show her further addressing the controversy, Emma allegedly wrote: "Yes I'm white and I never claimed to be anything else."

Hallberg, a 19-year-old Swedish model and self-described influencer known for her popular highlighter YouTube tutorials, asserts that she does identify as a white woman and has never claimed to be anything else. "It makes me sad that I have offended people," Emma told Teen Vogue in an email. "My goal and intention is to look like myself and to share my makeup looks and outfits. My intentions have never been to look like a black woman."

Emma also claimed that she does not use any tanner and doesn't frequent tanning salons. She claimed that she just "get[s] a very dark deep tan." When asked by Teen Vogue about using a foundation that was significantly darker than her skin tone for her YouTube tutorial, Emma responded, "I have some acne and scar issues in my face and use a lot of face scrubs and peeling products which scrubs away my facial tan. Therefore I use foundation that matches my neck and the rest of my body." Emma claimed that she does not understand why black women are upset with her appearance.

Instagram model Jaiden Gumbayan, who told Teen Vogue she is Filipino-Italian but does not identify as "white" but instead "as Jaiden Gumbayan," is yet another influencer who has been heavily mentioned in relation to this issue. Last June, Jaiden was accused of sporting blackface after posting an Instagram image of herself seeming to appear visibly darker than her typical appearance in some previous Instagram images. She's also faced heavy backlash for posting several Instagram photos wearing cornrows, which have since been deleted. "I am so sorry to those who may [have] been offended, and for perpetuating a culture of appropriation," Jaiden told Teen Vogue in an email. "I recognize that I have a responsibility to understand the intentional and unintentional impacts of my actions and platform." Jaiden additionally shared that she's grown to understand black women's criticisms of her appearance. "I understand why some Black women would be upset by what I do with my hair," said Jaiden. "I don’t think I can ever understand the depth and complexity of that pain, but I am constantly working to grow my understanding."

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Jaiden was mentioned in a viral Twitter thread created by freelance writer Wanna Thompson that accused "white girls" of "cosplaying as black women on Instagram." In the thread, users posted side-by-side images of some well-known white women and compared the apparent differences in their skin complexions, facial features, and outfits before and after gaining social media fame. Alongside Emma and Jaiden, YouTuber Mika Francis, Ariana Grande, Kim Kardashian, and Kylie Jenner were all mentioned in the thread.

Deja claims that all white women who darken their skin excessively in this way are engaging in a contemporary form of blackface. "Typically you see blackface as a way just to mock black people and I think it's kind of evolved over the years because now these non-black people and these white people have changed the term of blackface into a way that you can actually profit from blackface," Deja told Teen Vogue. Historically, white actors appeared in early Hollywood films and stage plays wearing brown or black theatrical makeup to perform as silly and exaggerated caricatures of black people. White actors during this time significantly profited from these roles. In this vein, blackfishing (or "N*ggerfishing," now a popular hashtag) can be seen as a modernized form of blackface.

Responses on Twitter to Wanna's and Deja's tweets have been mixed. Thousands of black women have chimed in under the posts accusing white women of attempting to dress, talk, and appear like black women to try to get brand endorsements, and for allegedly not properly acknowledging or financially supporting actual black women. One user's tweet claimed, "The problem is that a white Swedish girl is profiting while appropriating black features, and that's problematic in its sense, because people love black culture but not black ppl."

Some people on Twitter did come to the defense of the women featured in the thread, however. Many claimed that blackfishing is harmless. One user tweeted, "Y’all so offended about looks, let people live their lives. OK she puts on makeup so does more than half of the world, so she has a tan maybe she likes how her skin looks that way, maybe she overlines her lips so do hella other people, okay she sleeps in braids, protective style."

In a phone interview with Teen Vogue, Wanna explained that she wasn't surprised that many of the people she saw defending these women seemed to be white women and black men. "I believe those two [groups] have given me the strongest resistance because they are complicit in allowing these women to flourish on social media without any consequences," she said. "I feel like white girls benefit from stealing looks and styles from black women all the time. I just noticed that they like to dip their foot into the pond without fully getting themselves wet and it's like just enough to hang on to some sort of racial ambiguity without fully dealing with the consequences of blackness. Instagram is like a breeding ground for white women who are able to cosplay blackness while receiving attention from the very people who kind of hate black women."

Overall, this recent Twitter controversy highlighted a very deep issue that continues to plague the emotional — and, arguably, the financial — well-being of black women: the exploitation and devaluing of black women's physical beauty and earning power. The apparent success of white models who appear to look black or of mixed race appears to exceed the success of the black women who naturally possess these features. Furthermore, the media's prioritization and overwhelming superior representation of white women can take a toll on the self-esteem, confidence, and overall emotional welfare of black women. For black women, flattery is simply not enough of a reason to permit white and other non-black people to repurpose, misrepresent, and profit from our culture.